The tone of both the U.S. and Indian governments on the termination of India from Generalized System of Preferences benefits leaves the door open for at least partial re-entry, said Dan Anthony, who manages the Coalition for GSP, in a March 5 interview. The letter President Donald Trump sent to Congress said, "I will continue to assess whether the Government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets." The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said, "India was agreeable to a very meaningful mutually acceptable package ... while keeping remaining issues under discussion in the future." The Commerce Ministry said India wanted to take a "suitable trade margin approach" to medical devices, and that it was open to "the requested simplified dairy certification procedure," to deal with the fact that American cows are fed animal-derived blood meal.
India, the biggest recipient of the Generalized System of Preferences, will be terminated from the program after the mandatory 60-day waiting period, because it is not providing "equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors," the U.S. Trade Representative announced Monday evening. Turkey, which is the fifth-largest beneficiary of the program, is being terminated because its economy has developed sufficiently that it should no longer benefit from preferential market access, USTR said.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., and Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, on Feb. 26 introduced H. 1376, which would require the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to study whether Cambodia's participation in the Generalized System of Preferences program should be limited, suspended or ended. The bill follows the January introduction in the Senate of S. 34, the Cambodia Trade Act. That bill was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and has since been joined by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. (see 1901100016). Lowenthal said Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen "and his regime must pay a price for their role in destroying the rule of law and violating the basic freedoms of the Cambodian people.” Cambodia's participation in the GSP beneficiary program was re-approved in April 2018.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on tapered roller bearings from China (A-570-601). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD duties on importers for subject merchandise entered June 1, 2016, through May 31, 2017.
The signals that tariffs will not go up on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on March 2 is a small relief for businesses, according to Venable partner Lindsay Meyer, but they're still challenged by the difficulty "of forecasting what the second half of this year will present." Some importers that work with Venable are getting their suppliers to shoulder some of the additional tariff costs; others are declining to enter two-year contracts unless there's the ability to reopen the deals if tariffs increase. "The companies, they’re making their plans cautiously," she said. "I think the anxiety level isn’t at a level 10 that it was, but it certainly hasn’t dropped down below 5."
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 11-15 in case they were missed.
If any of the countries under review in the Generalized Systems of Preferences are going to lose access to the program, India is the most likely, according to a trade advocate who works on GSP. The advocate spoke to International Trade Today after speaking with staff who handle GSP at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and said he does not know if India will have some products removed, be suspended, or, like Russia, "graduate" from the program because the U.S. says it has developed enough.
In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
CBP will postpone the entire ACE deployment that was planned for Feb. 9, due to the partial federal government shutdown, it said in a CSMS message. Government agencies resumed full operation on Jan. 28. The deployment includes "automation of CBP Form 5106, unique identifiers for Centers of Excellence and Expertise," and updates to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), CBP said. The agency will send out any updates on the deployment through another CSMS message. CBP previously said it planned to delay deployment of Form 5106 (see 1901170046). CBP also said that the "mandatory filing of drawback claims pursuant to the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) is not impacted by the shutdown and will proceed as planned, regardless of funding status after February 15th. On February 24, 2019, all drawback claims must be filed as TFTEA drawback and must be done so electronically in ACE."
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., have introduced a bill that would require the administration to review whether Cambodia should remain on the list of countries eligible for the General System of Preferences. Cambodia exported $400 million worth of products in 2017 that are covered by GSP, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Only eight GSP countries had higher GSP exports that year. In all, more than $21 billion in imports received GSP duty benefits during 2017. Cruz said that Cambodia does not meet basic labor rights standards, has had the integrity of its elections undermined by its prime minister, and tilted toward China. "The [just introduced] Cambodian Trade Act aims to hold [Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen] and his government accountable for this behavior, and reinforces steps our European partners are taking," he said in a statement. Coons added that "Countries that undermine democracy, ignore labor standards, disregard human rights, and fail to protect intellectual property should not enjoy special trade privileges."